23andme introduces the first Personal Genome Service

Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, hasto launched 23andme today— it appears they are already taking orders before though. The service, partially funded by Google, has set out to revolutionize how we look at ourselves in reference to the past, present and future. For $999 you will receive a complete DNA scan that reveals your ancestry, what your risk factor for developing certain diseases is, and will keep you up-to-date with the latest medical advancements that directly affect you.

If I had $999 to spend, I’m not sure I would do it yet though. I have no problems morally, or otherwise, sending my cheek swab to 23andme for analysis. I’m not even overly concerned with the price point. It’s the fear of what they are going to tell me about myself that scares the bejesus out of me. What they are offering isn’t too extreme, but it’s almost like knowing the exact date and time of your death — cool, but not for me.
It would be interesting to know how many people take the plunge on Monday — it’s a lot of money, but the information you get is potentially invaluable. What do you think? Would you be willing to send your DNA to a private company for analysis? If so, would you pay $999 for it?

Source:
based on article by Garett Rogers on ZDnet Blogs

More about Google Phone

GPhone will be powered by Android.

Android is an open source mobile phone platform based on the the Linux operating system and Java programming platform and developed by the Open Handset Alliance.[1] The release of the Android platform on 5 November, 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecoms companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices.When released, the Android platform will be made available under the Apache license.
PC world tells teh story with some Concept designs that popped up all over internet

Move over iPhone. The tech world is now drawing its attention to a rumored gPhone.
Reports are popping up everywhere that Google is shopping around prototypes of mobile phones. Confirmation came from a report from The Wall Street Journal. It reported Google has built prototype cell phones, to be mass-produced by multiple hardware manufacturers.

What might those phones look like? Just as iPhone prototypes began popping up on the Web (long before Apple made an official announcement), so are Google phone prototypes.

Don't expect anyone to guess correctly what a gPhone might look like. But that hasn't stopped designers from dreaming. Here are some images I rounded up on the Web of prototype Google phones (and one prototype iPhone) linking back to the sources where I found them.

Earlier this year IntoMobile and other Web sites posted this prototype Google phone.

Here is a sleek design from a UK-based gadget Web site called T3.

Lets wait to see what will Google bring to our mobile life!

Google to announce mobile platform Monday; target: iPhone?

Google negotiators this weekend continue to hammer out agreements with wireless carriers, handset makers, software developers and hardware providers, as the company prepares to announce on Monday an ambitious platform for creating mobile applications. Although Google has declined to comment for months on its rumored move into the mobile space, sources said the company will make an announcement Monday at 11 a.m. EST, and that details of the plan are being finalized this weekend.

Google will announce an open source development platform for mobile applications that will contain a full set of components, including an operating system, a set of common APIs, a middleware layer, a customizable user interface and even a mobile browser, sources said. Instant messaging standard protocols will also be supported. The platform is intended to simplify the process of creating and deploying mobile applications, so that an application can be built once and be compatible with multiple phones. On the partner side, well over 30 industry heavyweights are already on board, including Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Nvidia, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, China Mobile, Telefonica, NTT DoCoMo, LG Electronics and HTC, the sources said.

Source:
Neowin

Google Goes OpenSocial to Trump Facebook

Google will officially join the club of social software development platform providers Nov. 1, when it unveils a set of application programming interfaces that will allow programmers to write social applications that will work on LinkedIn, Friendster and other social networking sites.
OpenSocial is designed to help programmers build applications that reach more of the 400 million users of social networks than they would under the original open developer model, Google product manager Joe Kraus told eWEEK Oct. 31.

The Mountain View, Calif., search vendor's initiative is an answer to the launch of Facebook's highly successful developer platform, on top of which 7,000 applications have been built since the social networking site launched it May 24.

Google is going the extra mile by enabling programmers to write applications for multiple social networks under three APIs, which will offer access to a user's profile and their friends, and the ability to let their friends know that activities have taken place.
In this learn-once, write-anywhere scenario, developers can tailor their application to run on any Web site enabled by OpenSocial.

In addition to Google's own Orkut social site, roughly a dozen partners have signed up for OpenSocial, including LinkedIn, hi5.com, iLike, Friendster and Ning. All told, the sites comprise over 100 million users, or roughly double the Facebook user base.

The launch of OpenSocial fans the flames between Google and Facebook, which look like real rivals with each passing day. Google's move comes a week after Microsoft announced that it won an extension as the exclusive ad provider for Facebook, in which the Redmond, Wash., software giant also took a $240 million stake.

Via : eWeek

Google increases Gmail storage

Google has announced that the free online storage for Gmail will increase gradually in the next days.

As of October 23th, users will get 4321MB of storage, and from January 4th next year, will see 6283MB of storage.

After that users will receive 3.3MB every day, which is apparently 10 times larger than the current rate of growth.

Google Apps mail accounts will have the same quota as standard Gmail accounts, while Google Apps Premier Edition will have 25GB mail accounts, compared to 2GB and 10GB previously.

"In April 2005, we started increasing Gmail storage as part of our "Infinity+1" storage plan. At that time, we realized we'd never reach infinity, but we promised to keep giving Gmail users more space as we were able," says the Gmail Blog.

Yahoo and Microsoft have recently increased the online storage they offer, so it appears as if Google, once the market leader in the area, has moved to catch up.


source:
Pocket-lint

YouTube promises copyright filters by September.

Since last year, Youtube has received hundreds of thousands of take down requests from content providers and royalty groups. The largest of those is the 100,000 video take down request from Viacom that later evolved into a $1bn lawsuit. So they are now showing their seriousness to built up copyright filters on the world's largest video sharing website.

According to the Associated Press, Youtube attorney Philip S. Beck told a New York court that the system would be in place "hopefully in September".

The system would reportedly use digital fingerprinting technology to compare user-submitted videos to copyrighted materials and filter out violations.

The giant Youtube competitor Soapbox on MSN by Microsoft has already put finger-printing on their website.

Links :

www.youtube.com
soapbox.msn.com

The Strangest Sights in Google Earth

With its detailed satellite photos, Google's interactive map lets everyone be a virtual globetrotter. And some of the things we've found in our travels are downright bizarre.

PCWorld presents an interesting artwork by capturing the strangest sights in Google Earth.

View the full Article

(One of the strangest sight)